BENGALURU: NTPC Limited, India's largest power generating company , will synchronise its first 800MW unit at its 4,000MW supercritical thermal power station at Kudgi in Vijayapura district on March 16. The progressive uptick in generation from this unit is going to significantly ease the power supply position in Bengaluru and elsewhere as the school examination season is picking up.

Bengaluru reeled under load-shedding and supply disruptions after a fire mishap left the Sharavathi hydel station dysfunctional, leading to a loss of 1,000 MW. "There is no loadshedding in Bengaluru now as we have successfully mana g ed the situation by staggering the supply throughout the day," KPTCL Director (Transmission) S Sumanth told ET.

Kudgi is the first NTPC project in Karnataka being implemented under two stages of 2,400MW and 1,800MW. Each unit will have 800MW of generation under supercritical technology . The work on the first 2,400MW stage is under implementation.

Karnataka recorded a peak availability of 9,300MW on Monday with 2,600MW of power being available from the central generating stations. "We are getting 400MW of power from Damodar Valley Corporation and diverted another 200MW from Nagjari hydel station southwards, and addressed the shortage concerns," Sumanth added.

The NTPC, in a press release, said it will take about six months to start commercial generation. The second and third units of the same capacity will also go on stream in six months' gap between them. KPTCL engineers said Karnataka will get 400MW or half the capacity once Kudgi first unit begins commercial operation. The rest will be shared by the other states fed by the southern grid. Until the unit begins commercial operation, the power pumped from the unit can be drawn by a state facing a deficit in its grid. Karnataka is going to be the biggest beneficiary, engineers said.

According to Central Electricity Authority (CEA) estimates, Karnataka will have a shortage of 2,792 MW in the current fiscal year, and the state is managing with load-shedding in rural areas. The NTPC said the power from its Kudgi station will help bridge the deficit to some extent.